RENO, Nev. – With their monumental 39-38 upset over Nevada Saturday night, the Aztecs are now 5-3 on the season, one win away from bowl eligibility.

This was the Aztecs’ first signature win of the Rocky Long era, and it was significant in many ways.

SDSU got its first road win of the year in stylish fashion, against the Mountain West-leading Wolf Pack. The rush defense proved itself worthy of its No. 28 national ranking by shutting down Nevada tailback Stefphon Jefferson, the nation’s No. 1 leading rusher.

But perhaps the most significant of all is the fact that the Aztecs did it all behind the steely cool of their backup quarterback.

Pressed into action when Ryan Katz went down with a broken ankle in the first quarter, sophomore Adam Dingwell took a couple of series to get into his groove.

“Those first few plays, you’ve got to get your blood going, and you’re excited to be out there,” Dingwell said. “I got a few carries, got hit a couple of times. Once that goes away, I was back to just playing football again. That was the most fun I’ve had in a while.”

Dingwell started 4-of-8 for 25 yards, but more than made up for it in by putting together a monstrous fourth quarter.

With the Wolf Pack scoring at will and determined to stay two scores ahead of their foe, the Aztecs showed resolve of their own as Dingwell led the offense on consecutive scoring drives that went more than 70 yards downfield.

Dingwell put up 127 yards in the fourth quarter alone on 8-of-13 passing, and punctuated his arrival as the Aztecs leader by getting the offense in position for Chance Marden to convert a game-tying 35 yard field goal with three seconds left on the clock.

“Dingwell surprised all of us,” said senior cornerback Leon McFadden. “Dingwell came in and stepped it up and did us justice. And the outcome was positive.”

Long said the Aztecs did not have to make any adjustments to the offensive game plan when Dingwell replaced Katz. The two quarterbacks play a similar style of football, and the transition from one to the other was mostly seamless.

Dingwell “did everything well. He threw the ball well, he scrambled well. We had a couple of designed runs for him, and that worked really, really well,” Long said.

But the head coach was most taken by Dingwell’s composure under pressure.

“Probably the most impressive things is how cool and calm and collected he was,” Long said.

Even on do-or-die third down situations late in the game, Dingwell never once appeared harried.

At one point, when SDSU trailed Nevada 31-21 with 7:46 remaining in the fourth quarter, things looked gnarly for the Aztecs, who seemed to have fallen out of sync on offense

Walter Kazee just managed to get the Aztecs out of their own red zone with three consecutive runs for a first down.

Then SDSU’s offensive machine slowed to a temporary halt.

Dingwell’s pass to Colin Lockett fell incomplete.

The teams exchanged offsetting pass interference penalties.

Dingwell was sacked on one play, and leveled on another as his released a pass to Ezell Ruffin that the receiver couldn’t hold on to.

Dingwell was sacked again.

Any of those things could have put the final nail in the Aztecs’ coffin. But just as they’d done all night, the team held on to its self-belief and rallied.

“Our whole team, you never saw one of our players panic. You never saw a coach panic,” Long said.

Most importantly, the young backup quarterback didn’t panic either.

Dingwell’s fourth quarter heroics extended into overtime. With Nevada having already scored its requisite touchdown, it was time for the Aztecs to put up or shut up.

SDSU needed only two plays to do what the Wolf Pack had done in seven – move the ball 25 yards and score.

Dingwell tossed one to Dominique Sandifer for a short gain. His next pass went to tight end Gain Escobar, who made his quarterback look good by rumbling downfield with the ball and punching it into the end zone.

“That was nothing to do with me. That was all him,” Dingwell said. “I think he made three or four guys miss and got in the end zone. It was great.”

The Aztecs boldly went for two points and the win instead of settling for an extra point and a tie. And they successfully converted when Dingwell hit tight end Adam Roberts wide open in the end zone.

Heady stuff.

“He went in and acted like he was the starter, and he played like one,” Long said.

The coach said he wasn’t particularly worried when Katz was knocked out of the game because he knew what Dingwell could do.

“Katz has done a great job, but we had confidence in Adam Dingwell because the two of them compete to be the starting quarterback all the way through spring, and probably a week or 10 days into fall camp,” Long said. “Adam came in and played probably as good as he could have played.